Number One Reason Why I Hate Myself
by Rogue Queen's Gambit
Summary: With the death of Rin, Sesshoumaru fights Naraku with all his power, but still... his loss means his death. Reincarnated in 21st century Tokyo, human Seishiro Taisho must find a way to slay the demon who killed him and his child long ago.
1. The Day That I Die

**Number One Reason Why I Hate Myself**

**By: Koneko Hanyou**

**Chapter 1: The Day That I Die**

He hated humans. He could not stand them in the least. They were stupid. They were weak. And most of all, they smelled terrible. Well, most of them did anyway. Rin smelled nice. She always smelled clean and she hinted of strawberries, her favorite fruit. Mostly, though, it was because he would not allow her to smell any other way. She was his pride and joy. He would make her bathe daily and even though strawberries were hard to find normally, he would always make sure she had at least a few. In general though, she always smelled good.

Or, at least, she had up until this morning. Now, her body stank of dead flesh, dirt, and blood. He would pay. Oh yes, he would pay severely. For he had done this to her. The monster that had killed her would pay dearly indeed.

"…_Naraku_…"a harsh, low growl escaped his throat as he lunged toward his foe, thoroughly intent upon ripping open his throat and allowing all the life to seep out slowly. He wanted him to pay. He wanted him to feel the pain, the same pain he had inflicted on her. But most of all, he wanted him to feel fear. The same fear that Rin had felt before she had died. He wanted him to fear the great Lord Sesshoumaru of the Western Lands.

He attempted to rush the foe, and lashed out decisively with his poison whip. His reward, for his efforts, however, was a sharp slash to his back, shattering his breastplate. A long, pointed tendril snaked through the air and punctured the soft, pliable skin of his torso.

Despite his injuries, however, he continued his assault against the hated enemy. Drawing forth the Toukijin from its sheath, he threw himself again at the demon before him. The metal struck repeatedly against the tough, outer shell of Naraku. No matter what the power behind his blows was, they affected the fiend naught. His battle for her spirit was not going to be won, but he attacked again and again.

Finally, with blood flowing forth from the many gashes and puncture wounds which covered his once proud form, he fell to the ground, breathing heavily as his knees met with the mud and dirt below him. He had sworn he would not give in to the beast, yet there he was, on his knees in front of the heathen. He was tired, beaten, and ready to die. How could he avenge her if he was dead? He had failed her.

"WIND SCAR!"

The voice broke the silence of the moment and an enormous amount of demonic power washed past him as the attack of his hated brother hurled itself toward Naraku, stunning him shortly. How dare he, that _hanyou_ slime! This was his fight! He would be the one to avenge her death, not that filthy _half-breed!_ No, he would not let him take his prey. He would fight until he died in mid-swing of his Toukijin.

He wrenched his broken body off of the ground and hurled himself once again towards Naraku. He would kill him. He would not allow his brother to do so before he got the chance. The monster had killed his… his what? Child? Pet? Servant? It did not matter, for she had been his. She had been his treasure. And now she was gone because of him, that bastard, Naraku.

Again and again, he was thrown to the ground by the snaking tendrils of the devil himself. Finally, even his demonic strength could not pry him from the ground. He was down, and down for good. This time, he would not be able to rise. The prey now belonged to his brother. His hated, accursed, stinking half-breed of a brother!

The life began to ebb from his eyes and he vowed he would come back. He would return to slay the vile, hated demon. No matter what form he took, he would return and he would _kill Naraku!_

Hours Later…

"Inuyasha! Please, don't leave me! Please!"

"I'll…come back…Kagome. It…It won't end… here…I'll…come…back…I promise…"

"INUYASHA! INUYASHA! No…no, please…no!"

She bent over his still figure, and peered deeply into his eyes, his bright, golden eyes which were now darkened and glazed over in death. He had fought bravely, valiantly, fighting not for his own life, but for the lives of those he loved. He had killed Naraku, yes, but at what cost? Now she would be without him, her reason to live. Now she would be the one left behind, for without him, she was nothing. She buried her tear soaked fact into the front of his haori, observing that the cadence of his breathing had ceased as her skin absorbed the last of the heat that had at one time radiated from him like light from the sun. She breathed deep, inhaling the last of his scent before the odor of death was allowed to permeate throughout his cells.

Pulling her face up from her sanctuary she surveyed the carnage around her. Miroku and Sango lay in each other's arms locked tightly forever in death's embrace. They would now have each other for all eternity, the taiji-ya and the houshi. The little kitsune youkai lay close to the neko-mata, both lacking the characteristic rising and falling of the chest, which distinguished immediately the living from the dead. Even the great Sesshoumaru-sama had set out for the world beyond, for his cold, golden eyes were glassed over and his remaining arm was extended in the direction of the child who had previously been in his care. He was barely recognizable from the bloody corpses of the common youkai which surrounded his once arrogant form, due to all the puncture wounds he had sustained in the battle.

Naraku was dead, yes, but if Kagome had learned anything from Kikyo, she knew that he would be back. And when he came back, she would kill him. In order to avenge the life of her beloved, no matter what form he took, she would _kill Naraku!_


	2. I Am What I Hate

**Chapter 2: I Am What I Hate**

_He walked through the field, the small girl clinging nervously to him. A small, loud-mouthed kappa was leading a two headed dragon in his wake. Suddenly, a swarm of wasps broke the horizon of the treetops. Something in him knew to ready himself for what was soon to come, and caused his body to tense, ready for combat. And then, _it_ came. It was a monstrous creature, with spiked tendrils, long barbs, and other inhuman and unearthly appendages emerging from his body in many places. He could smell the evil, confidence, and power flowing from this creature, but this did not duly bother him. The creature smirked at him, its' long, wavy, black hair flowing in the wind, which was being emitted from a woman in a red and white kimono hovering near him. _

_"Lord Sesshoumaru. We meet again. Kukukukuku…"_

_A long, barb was fired forth from the creature's body and hurtled through the air towards him. He scooped up the girl and dodged nimbly to the side, easily avoiding the lethal projectile. He deposited the child beside him and gave specific orders for the little kappa creature to keep her safe. The little creature nodded, knowing that his life would be the forfeit if she were brought to harm. _

_Turning back to face his attacker, his eyes narrowed and he cracked his knuckles, readying himself to attack. He charged toward his foe, focused completely on its immediate demise. The beast before him just smirked knowingly and fired a salvo of barbs towards him. Nimbly dodging each easily, he smirked back at his opponent and attempted to plunge his talons through his torso. _

_The demon skipped easily to the side and through back his head and began to cackle evilly. It directed its eyes toward the place where he had set the girl down. He whirled around and the sight that met his eyes caused a great ferocity to swell up within him, building pressure like lava trapped within a volcano._

_There, in that same place was the child, who could now be mistaken for a human pin-cushion. Blood dripped from each wound and trickled slowly around the corner of her mouth. Her dim, mud-brown eyes looked lovingly up into his bright golden ones as whispered to him,_

"…_Se-Sesshou…maru-sama… It…It hurts…."_

_As the light disappeared from her already dim eyes, the rage within him had swelled to its climax and burst forth from him in the form of a fearsome howl, twisting and winding its way towards the heavens. _

_"YAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!"_

"YAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!"

Seishiro Taisho shot straight up in his queen-sized bed, his ears still ringing with the words last spoken to him by the dying child and a cold sweat covering his entire body.

It had been such a strange dream, for in it, his normally mid-back length, ebony hair was longer and a luminous silver. His electric blue eyes had been an astonishing shade of gold, gold as bright as the sun itself. And that girl, the one who had been slaughtered by the monster, she had called him something else…what had it been? It had been extremely similar to his own name…Seisho…Sesshou… Sesshoumaru! That was it, Sesshoumaru! And not just 'Sesshoumaru' either, she had called him '-sama.' If he was a lord anywhere, it was surely in his dreams only and nowhere else.

Figuring that it was a dream and nothing else, Seishiro pulled himself out of his bed and hauled himself into his bathroom to ready himself to meet for the first time, the Junior-class population at Nishimori High. Stepping into his shower, he allowed the warm water to rush over his skin, savoring the pleasant sensation. After a while, he stepped out of the shower, wrapped a fluffy towel around his waist and exited the bathroom in favor of his bedroom. There, he picked out his outfit, which had to make an impression, especially on the first day.

He pulled out a pair of baggy, slightly faded jeans he had picked up the previous weekend at American Eagle and a flowing black, button down shirt, which he deliberately left undone down to the first three buttons. He slipped on his pair of black and red Etnies shoes and tied a simple woven string choker with a single tarnished silver pendant hanging from it around his neck. In the center of the pendant was cast the kanji character for 'demon.' Turning to grab his bottle of hair moisturizer cream, he noticed that the bottle was missing from the counter above his bathroom sink. If it wasn't there, he knew exactly where it was, though he wasn't keen on setting up a safari team to retrieve it.

He sighed, now thoroughly frustrated. Walking over to the door and into the hallway, and threw open his brother's bedroom door. The door hit the wall behind it with a resounding bang and he surveyed the room before him. The floor was lost to scattered CDs, various articles of clothing, homework papers from only God knew how long ago, posters that had never made it to the wall, books, and wires, keys that he didn't know what they went to, and a few soda cans littered the floor. Seishiro was certain there was something living within all that junk as well, but he hoped he would never be the one to find it. His brother's philosophy was that as long as it didn't bother him, he would provide it a home. The walls were completely covered with posters of various bands such as Green Day, Simple Plan, Good Charlotte, and various others which were lapped so heavily over each other that the virtual cornucopia of colors he had insisted on painting his walls years before only showed through in…two, no… three places. The mass of tangled sheets and pillows, otherwise known in some cultures as a 'bed,' allowed a flash of silver hair to peek through the mess of covers and comforters, revealing to Seishiro the location of his hated step-brother's head.

Taking careful aim, he launched the first thing he could find on the floor, which just so happened to be his brother's shoe, one of a set of two black and bright blue Adio-brand skater shoes. His reward was a loud yelp which was issued forth from the once-sleeping sixteen year-old in the 'bed.'

"What the f--! Seishiro, what the _hell_ are you doing, you bastard! I was sleeping!" complained an irate Iori.

"Uh…Duh."

"You bastard! What gives you the right to burst into my room and throw my stuff at me? Damn, you!"

"Stop yipping, hanyou. Where is my hair moisturizer cream?"

"Who wants to know?" Iori asked smugly.

Seishiro was at his side in an instant, and had taken a handful of his hair and was holding his head up by it as he growled menacingly into the silver dog ears atop Iori's head.

"Return it, you filth. The likes of you has no right to use it."

"Ow! Let go, damn it! It's on the god-damned windowsill! Let me go!"

Seishiro dropped the handful of hair he was holding onto and left his brother to massage his scalp as he walked gracefully over to the windowsill aforementioned, and retrieved his stolen property. Snatching up the bottle, he turned back and surveyed once again the destruction-zone before him, apparently searching for something. Finally, his gaze rested on the sought after object and he moved to salvage it from the wreckage of the floor.

Bending down to retrieve it, he carefully took aim again and threw the second Adio shoe at its owner's still sore head.

"Ow! What the hell?"

"That's for pilfering my belongings, filth."

"Bastard."

"Filth."

"Baka."

"Kuso atama."

"Why you-! I am not!"

"What a comeback, kuso atama."

"Feh! Whatever, get the hell out of my room, bastard."

Again, Seishiro was at his brother's side in an instant, the glow in his astonishing blue eyes quite dangerous.

"Don't you _dare_ presume to order me around, _hanyou_ filth."

Exiting ground zero, Seishiro made his way back to his own room, cursing his step-brother's name the whole way. Upon reaching his own room, he returned to his bathroom and applied the recently recovered hair moisturizer cream and pulled his now silky raven locks back into a high pony tail, allowing a few strands to hang loose into his face. He couldn't stand his hair getting in his way when he beat the life out of his brother.

Finishing this task, he returned to his room, shouldered his black messenger bag, which also bore the kanji character for demon in silver ink. He snatched his iPod off of the charger on his night-table and attached his cell phone to his belt as he ambled down the stairs and into the kitchen. There, he grabbed a bottle of V8 out of the fridge and was out of the front door and into the driveway. He promptly jumped into his sleek, black Mustang convertible. This car was his pride and joy, for it had taken him years of scrimping and saving and a little help from Dad, but he had finally been able to purchase his dream car.

Revving the engine, he pulled out of his driveway and steered his car towards the home of his little sophomore friend, Koyuko Shiimori. Parking the vehicle in front of her large, two story house, this also happened to have been built on the same land as the family's ancestral shrine. He walked through the torii gates, up the steps to the door, and banged twice on it, making his presence known.

"Wench! Hey, wench! Come on, if we don't get going, we're not going to be able to get a meal!"

The door opened to reveal a girl who was fairly short in comparison to himself and had shoulder-length hair as brown as his was black. Her brown eyes shone brightly as they looked up into his electric blue ones. She wore a tight black t-shirt that read 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye,' in silver lettering and a pair of slightly faded blue jeans which gathered nicely around her pair of black and bright blue Etnies. Her ensemble was completed by the black messenger bag slung lazily over her should, which bore the Kanji character for love in red lettering.

"Seishi, you're here! Oh my god, I missed you so much over the summer! I mean, what with being in Osaka for three weeks, and then having to visit my aunt in Miho for only God knows how long, I hardly got to see you at all!"

"Koyuko-"

"And then I had to go to Nagoya with my grandma and train at my uncle's shrine as a miko. Plus I got really sick with a cold for like, forever! It was horrible!"

"Koyuko, we really have to leave-"

"And I really, really, _really_ missed you Seishi! I really did! I wanted to call and all that, but my mom was being really strict about phone bills and me staying off the internet and stuff and--"

"KOYUKO, URUSAI!"

"Eh? D-Did you just…tell me _urusai_? Why if I only had my _bokuto_ I'd-"

"But you don't, so just get in the car, wench." he said with a smirk. He thoroughly enjoyed tormenting the girl and could never stay mad at her for long, no matter what she did to him. However, his face would never betray this odd characteristic, for on the outside he always appeared furious, contemplative and brooding.

"Hey, my name's not 'wench!' It's Koyuko! Say it with me, KO-YU-KO!"

He whirled on her, bringing his face close to hers, startling her slightly as he smirked at her.

"Alright, KO-YU-KO, two can play this game. Here goes: My name's not 'Seishi' either. It's SE-I-SHI-RO. You would do well to remember that in future, wench."

"My name's not 'wench!'"

"Whatever, stupid."

"It's not 'stupid,' either!"

"Feh. Get in or sit on your porch. I don't care. I'm leaving."

"Damnit, you baka! Wait a second; I'm coming! Jeez!"

"Why do you always have so much god-damned energy?"

"You, _Kuso atama_! I can't believe I actually _missed you_ over the summer!"

'_Why that little-! Call me a shit head, will she, why I'll-!'_

All the way to the café, which was located across the street from the school, Koyuko continued to mutter to herself, Seishiro only being able to make out the words,

"…bokuto…practice…_gatotsu_ …Seishi…_kuso atama_…" was laughing inwardly at her continuing animosity towards him for the episode at her front door. Pulling up to the small, corner side café, he killed the engine and escorted his still muttering passenger to the small table not far from the car.

He ordered his usual latte and bagel but had to kick Koyuko several times under the table in order to capture her attention and get her to order from the waiter who stood in front of them, with a slightly irritated expression on his face. He was finally able to pry her order of a cappuccino latte and biscotti after a particularly nasty verbal battle in which the words "stay out of my bubble" and "stupid wench" held an integral part.

Finally, when they were finished with their food, they grabbed their coffees and Seishiro escorted his passenger to the vehicle.

"Get your bag, wench."

"Huh? Aren't you going to drive to school?"

"In case you haven't noticed, we _are_ at school, wench."

"Eh?"

He pointed to himself, attempting to simplify himself for the girl. "We, are here. Here, is _across the street_ from the school. We walk," he made a motion with his fingers as if they were walking, "across the street _to the school. _ In every sense of the phrase, _we are here._ Now, get your bag."

"Smart ass."

"Wench."

"I hate you."

"I work hard at making that so. Now, walk."


End file.
